Jimmy Stewart portrays Monty Stratton, the famous Chicago White Sox pitcher, who loses a leg in an accident just as his career is on the rise, and whose triumph over despair and disability leads him to pitch again.
Stewart signed on for the role, when he realized the film would be inspiration to the real-life injured WWII GIs. Six-decades later, the film is still inspirational, and an honorable model for sports biopictures.
Awarded an Oscar for Best Motion Picture story, The Stratton Story is directed in earnest by Sam Wood (who made earlier the popular, Oscar-winning baseball movie “Pride of the Yankees” with Gary Cooper).
The supporting cast includes June Allyson, Agnes Moorehead, Frank Morgan and a bunch of real-life ballplayers.
The pairing of Stewart and Allyson as husband-and-wife was so successful that they appeared together again in “The Glenn Miller Story” (1954) and “Strategic Air Command” (1955).
Special DVD features:
Vintage short, “Pest Control”;
Classic cartoon, “Batty Baseball”;
Audio-only bonus, Radio Show with Stewart and Allyson;
Theatrical trailer
